Peace Be With You: Sent as Resurrection Witnesses

Jesus doesn't always remove the situation that causes fear, but he does always enter it. And his presence changes everything. His peace is not fragile. It's anchored in the cross, proven in the resurrection, delivered to you personally. So that when fears rise and they will, you do not look inward. You look to Christ again, and you hear him say to you, peace be with you. And that peace, that only he can give, begins to open locked doors and sends you out into the world where he's perfectly positioned you to share the hope that you have. [00:42:25] (50 seconds)  #AnchoredPeace

Yet into that fear and into that lack of trust and into that locked room, Jesus comes. He comes not after they fix themselves, not after the disciples got them their lives in order, not after they would prove that they would be courageous now, not after they apologized enough. No. No. Jesus just comes. The doors are locked. The disciples are afraid. Their hearts are a mess, and still Jesus stands among them. [00:29:35] (32 seconds)  #JesusComesIn

Fear makes you silent when you should speak. Fear makes you compromise when you should stand. Fear makes you lock doors. And if you're honest, the locked doors that are in the gospel of John chapter 20, they're not just there, they're in us. We lock the door too when our faith might be costly socially, when speaking the truth at work might cost us, when following Christ might make a difference personally in the neighborhood as well. Yet we stay quiet. We stay safe. We stay locked in. [00:27:35] (44 seconds)  #UnlockYourFaith

It doesn't come from your personality or your willpower or trying harder next time. Because if it depends on you, the door stays locked. Instead, it depends on Christ. The same Jesus who walked into that locked upper room walks into your fear. Not when you've overcome it, not when you've figured everything out, not when you've proven your faith, but he comes right in the middle of it. Into the silence, into the hesitation, into the failure, into the fear. [00:40:04] (34 seconds)  #HeEntersOurFear

Peter, that same Peter who denied Jesus, now later writes in his first letter to the church in first Peter chapter one verse three, he says it this way, because of his great mercy, the mercy of Jesus, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living hope. Not wishful thinking, not fragile optimism, a hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, meaning meaning your future is secure. Your faith is not futile. Your suffering, even your suffering is not meaningless. In fact, you can even rejoice in it because you know Christ lives. [00:35:11] (50 seconds)  #LivingHopeInChrist

Look what happens just a few verses later in verse 40 of Acts five. After they called in the apostles, they had them flogged. They ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and they released them. And they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name. Rejoicing in their suffering. Rejoicing that they just got flogged because of confessing the name of Jesus, a name that they will go out and not stop professing in the temple daily from house to house wherever they can. [00:34:24] (46 seconds)  #RejoiceInSuffering

I wanna see. I wanna touch what his brother disciples got to see and touch in that other in that upper room. And a week later, Jesus meets him too. Not with rejection, but an invitation. Put your finger here, Jesus says. See my hands. Don't be faithless, but believe. To which Thomas replies, my Lord and my God. In an instant, fear gives way to faith. Doubt gives way to confession, not because Thomas all of a sudden had everything all figured out, but because Thomas saw Jesus. [00:32:28] (44 seconds)  #FromDoubtToBelief

Coming not with condemnation, coming not to say, why didn't you stay stronger? Why weren't you braver? Why didn't you speak? Why did you give in again? But instead, he comes to you and says, peace be with you. It's a peace that the apostle Paul came to understand. He writes about it in his first in his letter to the Philippians in the fourth chapter where he says, don't worry about anything. But in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. [00:40:38] (47 seconds)  #PeaceThatGuards

A peace not as the world gives, but a peace only that Christ can give. A peace Jesus described on the night he was betrayed in John He says to his disciples, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world, but be courageous. I've conquered the world. Friends, that peace is available for you even now. It's available through you through his word, where he declares to you today again and again, your sins are forgiven. [00:41:25] (43 seconds)  #PeaceOnlyChristGives

and I anchor it around here there we go. All of a sudden, here I'm I'm tied to something that's not gonna that's not gonna change. My life's gonna change. There's gonna be times where where things are going well, and and I'm gonna be not realizing the pains of the hardship of this world, but there's gonna be times where where I'm gonna be stretched and strained and and wonder if I can hold on. But then all of a sudden I realized it's not me who's holding on to the rope. It is Christ and his cross and his resurrection, his declarative event to me that is holding me in the midst of the storm. [00:37:49] (38 seconds)  #ChristIsOurAnchor

As real as those fears are, they're they're not the real problem. It's it's really something deeper. And John, who was there in that locked upper room, said that they were there in this upper room as you heard it read a moment ago because they were afraid. They were afraid of the Jews. Yet the person they should have been afraid of is God the father himself. They failed his son. They ran. They hid. They denied even knowing him. They abandoned Jesus. [00:28:19] (35 seconds)  #FearExposesUs

And now I know you and I like to think, well, well, well, if we were there, we would have been bold. We would have been faithful. We would have been unshaken, but yet our scriptures and our experience say otherwise. We would have bent too. When the pressure comes and beneath all of this is the truth, we fear losing our lives more than we fear the one who has given us our life. That's the law. Not just that we're afraid, but that our heart of fear reveals a lack of trust in God. [00:28:54] (41 seconds)  #TrustOverFear

So I need not worry when the world is filled with trouble because Jesus said it would. But I could find peace in him who has overcome the world. And anytime I doubt it, I just look back to that cross and say that's where Jesus did it. Yes. There's confusing things. Yes. There's troubling things, but Jesus has overcome the world. That's the peace you and I need. [00:38:27] (28 seconds)  #LookToTheCross

And instead of talking to them, Jesus talks to the wind and the waves and he says, peace be still. And the wind and the waves obey him. Because it has to. Because when Jesus speaks, his words accomplish what they say. And now today, dear friends, the Lord of life speaks another authoritative word, and that authoritative word is peace be with you. [00:31:16] (31 seconds)  #HisWordCommandsPeace

Not just the big fears that we face in the dramatic ways, but the everyday kind of quiet fears that can show up. Sometimes it shows up in the conversations at work or with friends or even with family. And the idea of faith in the bible and Jesus comes up. And you realize that at that moment you've got an opening and then the thoughts start rushing in. They start rushing in and they start to think, well, what if I'm wrong? What if what if I say it wrong? What if I come across judgmental? What if this changes the relationship and so so we say nothing? [00:38:54] (37 seconds)  #SpeakWithCourage

first Easter Sunday, John gives us an account of the disciples who weren't just in a room. They were in a room with doors that were locked, huddled together, huddled together in in fear and trembling. Peter, who once swore bold boldly that he would be loyal even to death, is is now silent. The others who also said that they too would would die with Jesus are now hiding. And we can understand that because that's what fear does. Fear has a way of of shrinking us, A fear of rejection, a fear of being heard, a fear of being labeled, a fear of being excluded, a fear of being misunderstood. [00:26:44] (51 seconds)  #LockedInFear

And what does he say? Why did you abandon me? Explain yourselves. No. Peace be with you. Peace be with you. That peace is not just a feeling. That peace is not a suggestion. That peace is a declarative word from the risen lord and savior who when he speaks his words accomplish things. Just ask Mary and Martha a couple weeks ago. They were mourning outside the tomb of their brother Lazarus who had been placed in that tomb who was dead and buried for four days. But then Jesus shows up [00:30:07] (42 seconds)  #DeclarativePeace

And in Acts chapter five, there they are before them. And now there's no locked doors, no silence, no fear. Instead, they declare, we must obey God rather than people. What happened? They didn't just become braver people all of a sudden. What happened was they encountered the risen Christ. And the risen Christ changed changed everything. In fact, they go from fear of being arrested, fear of being persecuted. [00:33:48] (36 seconds)  #ObeyGodNotPeople

Peace because your sins are forgiven. Peace because the cross was more than enough. Peace because death has been defeated. Then he shows the evidence of that defeat. His wounds, the very wounds that should condemn them are now the proof that they are forgiven. John tells us that not everyone was there that that first Sunday, that resurrection Sunday with them to hear and to see Jesus, one who was missing was was Thomas. And I know what many of us think is what Thomas thinks is is that he wants some proof. [00:31:47] (41 seconds)  #ProofInTheWounds

Friends, we don't just fear discomfort. We fear the life we built and underneath it all is its deepest fear. If I go let go, will God really take care of me? See, our fear isn't just weakness. Our fear is misplaced trust. It is a heart that is clinging to something other than God for safety, identity, and life. We fear losing what we think we can't live without. But the good news is that this courage, your courage doesn't come from inside you. [00:39:31] (33 seconds)  #MisplacedTrust

Yet into that fear and into that lack of trust and into that locked room, Jesus comes. He comes not after they fix themselves, not after the disciples got them their lives in order, not after they would prove that they would be courageous now, not after they apologized enough. No. No. Jesus just comes. The doors are locked. The disciples are afraid. Their hearts are a mess, and still Jesus stands among them. And what does he say? Why did you abandon me? Explain yourselves. No. Peace be with you. Peace be with you. That peace is not just a feeling. That peace is not a suggestion. That peace is a declarative word from the risen lord and savior who when he speaks his words accomplish things. [00:29:34] (62 seconds)